In a typical storage area network (SAN), several servers are remotely connected to one or more storage devices. The servers treat the devices as if the devices are locally attached and may boot from or store data in the storage devices.
The benefits of SAN technology include flexible data storage, centralized storage management, disaster recovery, and large scalability. A server may connect to a SAN using different types of connections and protocols. Existing software implementations, however, prevent the user from taking full advantage of the benefits of SAN technology by imposing restrictions on the type of servers that may be connected to a SAN in some important SAN management scenarios.
For example, adding a new server to a SAN (for replacement or as a backup) requires the new server to connect to the SAN using the same SAN connectivity protocol or communication standard (e.g., FC—Fiber Channel, iSCSI—Small Computer System Interface over the Ethernet, SAS—Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface) as an existing server.
Systems and methods are needed that can overcome the aforementioned shortcomings by providing multi-protocol compatibility when adding a new server to a SAN.